The End of the Peloponnesian War and the Fall of Athens

The renewal of the war in 415 which ended with the fall of
Athens in 404 was a continuation of the Archidamian war of 431-421 but whereas
the ideals of 'liberation of the Greeks' on the one side as against the rights
of empire on the other were held to be the reasons for conflict, the second war
would prove that attitudes had hardened and the opposition become fiercer and
the distinction of oligarch v democracy sharpened.

The wealthier oligarchic minded citizens of Athens, taking
advantage of more moderate discontents, begin to build support for a new
constitution. Alcibiades negotiates
with the Athenian officers on Samos, promising that he could secure an alliance
for Athens with Tissaphernes a Persian satrap, but that dissolution of the democracy would
be a condition. Back at Athens, it
was voted to move ahead with the negotiations
but it became clear that
Alcibiades had promised more than he could deliver.

There is some differences between Sparta and
Tissaphernes over the extent of Persian rights,
but Tissaphernes is still is not ready to break with them in favour of
Athens. He proposed
impossible conditions for Athens, and renegotiated the treaty with
Sparta to limit Persia's claims to Asia.

The coup goes ahead
anyway, and in June a council of 400 essentially replaces the Athenian
assembly. The Athenian democrats on
Samos lead a counter-revolution, establishing
government-in-exile, which recalls Alcibiades and elects him general,
in the forlorn hope of gaining an alliance with Tissaphernes.
Tissaphernes' strategy in 411 is to prolong the war and to take advantage of
their conflict to win back the Greek cities and islands that once belonged to
Persia.

Meanwhile,
there is dissension among the ranks of the 400 who send envoys to Sparta to negotiate
a peace. They garrisoned the entrance to the great harbour at Piraeus to be able to admit the Spartans and/or keep out the Athenian
fleet from Samos. Negotiations with Sparta fail, and when the Spartan fleet is
seen operating in the Saronic gulf, support for the 400 decays, popular uprising
against the Pireaus garrison negotiations with the 400 A Spartan
fleet of 42 ships appears off Salamis sails around Attica toward Euboea. There
an Athenian fleet
of 36 ships is utterly defeated. Euboea now revolts. The situation at Athens
seems desperate there is no reserve
fleet, the army and fleet at Samos is hostile and the main source of supplies
has been lost. The Oligarchs
are deposed, most of them escape to Decelea, one betrayed Oinoe to the Spartans.
A new constitution
is put in place.

At the invitation of Pharnabazus a Peloponnesian fleet of 86
ships sailed for the Hellespont followed by an Athenians fleet with 76 ships. At Cynossema
a naval battle is fought. The
Athenians are extended along the shore of Chersonese, the Peloponnesians planned to outflank
the line to prevent it from escaping the straits, and to press the centre in to
the shore. Athenians countered by extending their right wing, thus weakening the
line. The Peloponnesians were victorious in the centre, but the right wing took advantage
of the disorder and threw the Peloponnesian ships into a panic. The Athenian left
engaged around the cape of Cynossema, out of sight of the rest of the battle
and repulsed Peloponnesians. This was an encouraging victory for the Athenians
which was followed by
the recovery of Cyzicus, which had revolted.

The period 410 to 406 BC was one of almost continuous naval activity in the
eastern Aegean and Hellespont. Pharnabazus the Persian satrap is more actively supporting the Peloponnesians
by offering subsidies to pay for crews and troops. The Spartan admiral Mindarus
besieges Cyzicus, with the support of Pharnabazus' army. However an Athenian fleet
of 86 ships passes into the Hellespont unseen, and takes Mindarus by surprise. Mindarus
is killed, and 60 ships taken or destroyed, reducing
the Peloponnesian navy dramatically. With its fleet essentially gone, Sparta
makes
a proposal for peace on the basis of the status quo but Athens is unwilling to abandon
an attempt to restore its power in the Aegean and the peace offer is rejected.

In 409 Athens loses Pylos and Nisaia. Darius sends his son Cyrus to Sardis to deal
with the activities on his western frontier of Persia, to eliminate the rivalry between Tissaphernes and Pharnabazus
and ensure Sparta wins the war. Lysander, the new and dynamic Spartan navarch,
negotiates with Cyrus. Alcibiades is back in Athens in 407 and granted full powers for
the conduct of the war. Early in 406 at the battle of Notion an Athenian fleet keeping guard
on Ephesus is defeated by Lysander, captured 15 ships. Alcibiades is discredited, even
though he was not present and he withdraws to an estate in the Hellespont and new generals
are elected. Conon is given command of the navy. Within a few months of this battle,
Peloponnesians have a fleet of 140 ships, under admiral Callicratidas. Conon gets
forced into battle near Mytilene and loses 30 of his 70 ships, the rest are blockaded.
The
Athenians melt down dedications to finance the building of more ships, promise freedom to slaves
and citizenship to aliens in return for signing on as rowers. They swiftly get together fleet
of 150 ships to relieve Conon at Mytilene. Callicratides leaves 50 ships to maintain
the blockade, and takes 120 ships out to meet the Athenian relief fleet. A battle
is fought near islets
of Arginoussai, south of Lesbos, where the Athenians score a great victory;
restoring Athenian
domination of the eastern Aegean. Once again the Spartan offer peace, but it is rejected under the
influence of Cleophon.

In 406 after the Athenian victory at the Arginoussai Islands, Conon took the
fleet to the small river mouth at Aegospotami in the Hellespont. The Spartan
fleet was close by on the opposite side of the Hellespont, and for four days
Conon rowed his fleet over to it, trying to engage the Spartans, who for their
part stayed put. On the fifth day, after repeating this manoeuvre once more, the
Athenians returned, beached their ships and scattered to look for food,
Aegospotami being too small to have a market. However, the Spartan commander
Lysander had sent two
ships as scouts, to shadow the Athenians and report back. Upon hearing that the
ships were unguarded, Lysander quickly brought his troops across and burned
nearly all of Conon's 170 ships, only 9 escaping in time, , the flagship Paralus
returning to Athens and the others fleeing to Cyprus. 3000 prisoners are
massacred. Conon wisely did not go home.

The Fall of Athens

Lysander, planning to blockade Athens, expels the Athenian cleruchs from the islands
to swell the population at Athens. After subjugating the Athenian cities in the
Hellespont and Thrace he sailed with 150 ships into the Saronic gulf, occupied
Aegina, and blockaded Pireaus. A Harmost and a group of 10 oligarchs, Lysanders
friends, were installed in many of the cities. Pausanias and Agis entered Attica, encamped at the
Academe, west of the city walls which were too strong to attack, the army withdrew
with the onset of winter, though the fleet remained. The Athenians now made peace offers.
They would give up their empire,
and become an ally of Sparta. Sparta seeing blood wanted harsher terms. Theramenes visits Lysander to
find out what would be acceptable and returns after 3 months to find Athens is ready to
submit on any terms. Theramenes is sent to Sparta with full powers to negotiate a
settlement. Sparta's Peloponnesian allies particularly the Corinthians and
Boeotians wanted to destroy Athens and sell the population into
slavery but Sparta remembering Athens' past service to Greece offers harsh, but reasonable terms:

Long walls and Pireaus fortifications to be dismantled

All Athenian foreign possessions to be given up

Whole fleet, except 12 triremes, to be given up

Athens to be a dependent ally of Sparta

Exiles (many of them oligarchs) to be restored

A Spartan harmost and garrison to be installed

If one were more cynically inclined one might think the desire to save Athens
was to make her a loyal ally of Spartan policy in central Greece as a
counterweight to Boeotian expansionism and step into her shoes in her former
empire. Perhaps we see Lysander's hand at work here.

In April 404 after the terms were ratified, Lysander sailed into Piraeus, and began
work of demolishing the walls.: Athenians and Peloponnesians worked together, to
the music of flute-girls, celebrating the freedom of the Greeks.